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This column represents the thoughts and opinions of The Rev. Carl Roth. This is not the opinion of the Elgin Courier. Needs the disclaimer
“Snipe” is the name of roughly 26 species of wading birds found around the world, but when I refer to snipe hunting, I’m not talking about a bird. No, I’m talking about a practical joke called “the snipe hunt.” This gag dates to about the 1840s in America, and it involves getting an unsuspecting person to go on a hunt for an imaginary animal called a snipe. Usually this happens at night. The prankster will lead you to a place in the outdoors, give you a bag to put the snipe in, and provide instructions on how to catch this fanciful creature. Then you have to stand in the dark and make goofy noises that supposedly attract the snipe. After waiting long into the night, you’re literally left holding the bag and finally realize that it’s all a big joke. You’ve been sent on a fool’s errand, a wild-goose chase.
So don’t ever get suckered into a literal snipe hunt, but even more, don’t get lured into a spiritual snipe hunt. The snipe is imaginary, a fiction, and that’s the sort of thing Satan wants you to go looking for. Spiritually speaking, the devil’s main goal is to get you to go snipe hunting every minute of every day. He wants you to go searching for that which can’t be found, and in the process, to lose what matters most.
Ask pretty much anyone what they want most in this world, and the answer you’ll get is a package involving happiness, peace, health, prosperity, success, pleasure. But what does our Lord Jesus say in John 16:33? “In this world you have tribulation.” The Greek verb for “have” is in the present tense, so it should be translated progressively or continuously as, “in this world you are having tribulation” on an ongoing basis. And what we translate as “tribulation” can variously mean outward “affliction, oppression, trouble that inflicts distress,” along with inward affliction that troubles the heart. Because of original sin and the sins of others, we often suffer outward tribulation; because of the sins we commit and the condemnation of God’s Law against our sins, we often have inward tribulation, a troubled conscience.
There’s nothing wrong with desiring temporal happiness, butthesearchforpermanentand complete peace and happiness in this sinful world is nothing but a snipe hunt. Yet should that fact lead us to be downhearted and despairing? By no means! I only quoted the middle part of John 16:33 and left out the Good News. Jesus says, “I have preached these things to you so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you are having tribulation; but take heart — I have conquered the world.”
The things Jesus has preached to you so that you may have peace in Him are all His Words in the Holy Scriptures, where He proclaims how He has conquered sin, death, and hell for you: He has obeyed God’s Law and fulfilled all righteousness for you; He has gone to the cross to die for your sins, in your place, to rescue you from eternal damnation and bring you the victory of everlasting life in heaven. We learned during Holy Week how He would accomplish this victory—by the cross, by suffering for the guilt of the whole world, by His death and burial, by being forsaken of God in your place. Even though all of us because of our sinful nature are enemies of God, the Father shows His love for His enemies in this world by giving up His own Son for them, even you. In Christ, you have been reconciled to God, made to be at peace with Him, and the “ruler of this world,” Satan, has been judged and defeated. Believe it, it’s true!
St. John writes that “everyone who has been born of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that conquers the world — our Faith” (1 John 5:4). By Baptism, you share in Christ’s conquering of the world. In Christ, you rise above all sin, death, and sorrow, more than conquerors of this world and its tribulations through Him who loved us, and in Him you have peace.
So don’t fall for Satan’s invitation to go snipe hunting for temporal rather than eternal fulfillment. Instead, take comfort that Jesus has found you in Baptism, and continue to hunt for His grace, mercy, and peace in the Bible and in the Christian Church! Amen.
